Gibbous Moon: The Ripening Promise

Gibbous Moon: June 1, 2012 (EDT)

Tomorrow very early (overnight, really), the Moon reaches her square-and-a-half with the Sun that marks the Gibbous Moon. What is that word?

A gibbous Moon is a bulging Moon, full but not quite, round but not quite, promising but just a little off to our eye. "Gibbous" is an old word for "hump" or "hunch" and was used for hunchbacks as well as the Moon.

Awkward, then, this Moon. Something we can't look away from and yet don't want to be caught staring at. It pushes at us, wanting to be adjusted.

Sesquiquadrates, the square-and-a-half aspect, are like that. We've made it past the First Quarter challenge, heading for the illumination of the Full Moon, and here comes something else to trip us up.

It doesn't seem fair, and yet all the great stories have this one-more-challenge pattern. This is the falling action, the dénouement. The hero has passed the crisis and all seems resolved, but wait––who is that hiding in the shadow?

At this Gibbous Moon, we find the Moon conjunct Saturn, both in Libra and Saturn (still) retrograde. They sit at the apex of a Finger of the World, as they are sesquiquadrate both the Sun and Chiron, who square each other.

The Sun, conjunct Mercury, Venus and the South Node, also squares Mars, who opposes Chiron. Meanwhile, Neptune and Chiron square the Nodes of the Moon, and Uranus is one degree away from his first exact square to Pluto.

This is looking like the scene in the frontier cantina when everyone has his/her weapons drawn and pointed at everyone else, and no one can move.

Definitely awkward.

light increasing

There's another image of the Gibbous Moon that offers hope. Looking at the almost-full profile of this brightening Moon, we see the profile of a heavily pregnant woman not quite ready to give birth, "big-bellied with the wanton wind," as Shakespeare had it.

This is a delicate time, when we wait with some anxiety, ready to celebrate the coming birth and hoping nothing happens so close to threaten the outcome.

The signs in the sky point to surprises, flashes of energy, and hidden support: the Gibbous Moon flows in trine with Neptune and Venus, and sextiles Pluto. Mars trines Pluto, and Uranus trines the North Node.

At this time, we may feel a strong need to act without being able to see clearly what action will be best. The heady mix of planets standing around this particular cantina suggests action will be needed. It's a good time to stop the cycle of anxious thinking, and tune in to a deeper, more intuitive channel.

As we move toward the powerfully energized Full Moon, careful steps are called for, yet we want to move without anxiety, calling in our intuitive connections, and finding the way.